The present invention relates to gas lighters, and relates more particularly to a safety striker wheel assembly for gas lighters.
Commercially available gas lighters are commonly made disposable and can be conveniently obtained from retail stores everywhere. However, because regular disposable gas lighters are available in most retail stores, children can easy obtain a disposable gas lighter for fun. In order to prevent young children from using regular disposable gas lighters for making fire, many countries have instituted regulations to enforce the installation of safety means in disposable gas lighters. FIG. 1 shows a disposable gas lighter with a safety button according to the prior art. This structure of disposable gas lighter comprises a butane well 10 covered with a top cover 11 to hold a striker wheel 12, a gas lever 13, and a flame nozzle 14. Furthermore, a safety button 15 is mounted in a hole (not shown) on the top cover 11 and disposed beneath the gas lever 13. Under normal condition, the gas lever 13 is stopped from downward movement by the safety button 15. The gas lever 13 can be depressed only when the safety button 15 is depressed. When the gas lever 13 is depressed and the striker wheel 12 is rotated, a flame is produced at the flame nozzle 14. Because of the installation of the safety button 15, the manufacturing cost of the disposable cigarette lighter is greatly increased. Furthermore, the installation of the safety button 15 is not easy because it must match with the gas lever 13 in operation.